Working draft · updated October 23, 2026
The clause
Every public shelter offers paid work to residents who want it. Part of each paycheck goes into a savings account the resident keeps when they move into a home of their own.
Why
Everyone who moves from a shelter back into work and a home costs the public less and pays more in taxes, so the public should pay to help that happen. Work has to be voluntary and matched to what each person can do, because many residents are also dealing with illness or addiction.
Shelter work can take on jobs that have left the country, or that rival nations subsidize: textiles, simple plastic goods, recycling, solar panel manufacturing. It can also cover local work: cleaning streets, sidewalks and highways, landscaping, and farm labor.
What already exists
- In New York, the Doe Fund’s Ready, Willing & Able program has given homeless men paid transitional work, including its street-cleaning crews, since 1990 (The Doe Fund).
- Albuquerque’s “There’s a Better Way” program, started in September 2015, offered people who were panhandling paid day work beautifying the city, then connected them with housing and job services (City of Albuquerque). Several other cities have copied it.
How we’d know it’s working
- People experiencing homelessness, sheltered and unsheltered: HUD Point-in-Time count.
- The share of shelter stays that end in permanent housing: HUD System Performance Measures.
- The share of people who become homeless again within two years: HUD System Performance Measures.
The hard questions
- Pay: minimum-wage law covers work like this. Does the program pay it, or does the law need an exception?
- Does shelter work undercut local businesses and the people who work for them?
- Who holds the savings, and what happens to the money if someone leaves the program early?
- What counts as “graduating”?